Crossword Genius

Expel from university without reason extremely shocked individual (4,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

send down

'expel from university' is the definition.
(Oxbridge term)

'without reason extremely shocked individual' is the wordplay.
'without' indicates putting letters inside.
'reason' becomes 'end' (I've seen this in other clues).
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'individual' becomes 'own'.
'shocked' with its middle taken out is 'sd'.
'end' placed inside 'sd' is 'sendd'.
'sendd'+'own'='SEND DOWN'

(Other definitions for send down that I've seen before include "Expel (from university)" , "get out of college" , "Assign time to" , "Rusticate" , "Dismiss student" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app